Evergreen Park school district, union meet in bid to end strike

Community forum on contract talks, walkout scheduled for Monday

Teachers and support staff employees in Evergreen Park School District 124 have been on strike since Tuesday. (José M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune)

After four days on the picket lines, the union representing striking teachers and support staff at Evergreen Park's elementary school district sat down Friday night with the school board as both sides tried to end the strike.

About 1,800 students at Evergreen Park School District 124's four elementary schools and one junior high school have been out of class since Tuesday after the school board and the Evergreen Park Federation of Teachers failed to reach an agreement on pay and benefits for 150 teachers and 60 support staff.

Teachers called for a strike Monday night after rejecting a final contract offer last month from the school board. Negotiations on the contract began in April.

The strike has left some parents scrambling to find a place for their children during the workweek. A day before the strike began, Superintendent Robert Machak said he hoped it would end quickly, but the sides have been unable to find common ground on health insurance, retirement benefits and the push to tie part of teachers' annual salary increases to students' test scores.

On Thursday, the school board sweetened its four-year contract offer by about $500,000, and the union agreed to extend the contract term from three to four years, but no other progress was made, the school district said. The two sides are also split on a salary increase for support staff, with the school board now offering a 75-cent annual raise for two years, while the union is seeking a $1 annual raise over the length of the contract.

Machak previously said the two sides were about $2 million apart. The union has said teachers have already agreed to smaller salary increases than they are getting now, but the district is unfairly trying to shift more health care and retirement costs to them while sitting on a $16 million surplus.

Neither Machak nor the union returned calls seeking comment Friday.

A community forum on the contract talks and strike is scheduled for Monday, according to the union, which said representatives from the school board and union would be on hand to answer questions. The forum is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the American Legion Evergreen Park Post No. 854, 9701 S. Kedzie Ave.